Dayton IT firm, Donet, to host Ohio Lottery Commission site

The Ohio Lottery isn’t gambling when it comes to hosting it’s popular Web site, OhioLottery.com. They’re using Donet, a Dayton IT services company, to ensure their site is always available to visitors.

Donet logo

PRLog - Feb. 10, 2011 - DAYTON, Ohio -- Dayton, OH -- The Ohio Lottery isn’t gambling when it comes to hosting it’s popular Web site, OhioLottery.com. They’re using Donet, a Dayton IT services company, to ensure their site is always available to visitors.

“For large organizations like the Ohio Lottery, Web site reliability is a critical success factor” says David Mezera, president of Donet. “If your site is down or can’t handle the traffic, you’re losing business and damaging your reputation."

When the Ohio Lottery Commission decided to redesign its Web site, it turned to Northlich, a brand engagement agency with offices in Ohio and New York City. Northlich needed an experienced partner to provide Web site hosting services for the project and after a state-wide search turned to Donet.

“OhioLottery.com has to handle traffic of a million visitors each month with 40,000 concurrent users,” says Mezera. “ The site also has streaming video. We were able to craft a cost-effective solution to meet their high reliability needs.”

Donet’s hosting solution for the Ohio Lottery includes six separate “VIP” (Versatile Infrastructure Platform) instances -- five separate servers to deliver web content, plus a fifth server for streaming live KENO games. Each VIP is a flexible, scalable virtual machine hosted in Donet’s cloud environment. The cloud is built upon enterprise grade hardware and software, using EMC storage area networks, VMware virtualization technology, Dell servers, EMC’s Avamar data backup and recovery solution, Cisco switching and routing gear throughout the network infrastructure, and, of course, Donet's technical expertise and can-do attitude. Single point failures that are commonplace with physical server implementations have been eliminated in Donet’s cloud environment, which comes with a 99.999% uptime guarantee.

Mezera founded Donet in 1995 with partner, Leigh Sandy. Together they’ve grown the company from a home Internet Service Provider and basic Web site host to a high-end IT services firm with clients from California to New York, and even Australia.

“When we started Donet 16 years ago, we hosted simple Web sites for $14.95 a month,” says Mezera. “Today we’re hosting complex cloud application hosting solutions that cost thousands of dollars a month and on which major organizations, like the Ohio Lottery, depend.”

Cloud computing isn’t the only high-end service provided by Donet. They recently developed a method to provide high-speed Internet to business customers over their existing copper telephone wire. Using existing phone lines saves businesses the thousands of dollars it typically takes to run fiber-optic lines into a building.

“Nobody else is doing this in Dayton,” says Mezera. “We can get speeds of 50 megabytes per second using existing copper telephone wire and get it up and running very quickly.”

The key to providing the new service is having access to the copper telephone lines. Because Donet recently became a Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC), it now has direct access to the local telephone network. But rather than sell telephone services, Donet is using the copper wire used to carry phone signals to provide lowercost, high-speed Internet access for Dayton businesses. According to the Ohio Public Utilities Commission Web set, there are 36 CLECs in Ohio but Donet is the only one located in Dayton.

“If you don’t already have fiber in your building, it will cost you,” says Mezera. “You have to pay to get it into your building and that can be a big project. But the copper we use is already there. It’s using old-school technology in a new way to save money.”

Mezera has always been an innovator. Before founding Donet, he conducted research to improve the realism of air combat simulators, and commanded critical Defense Department communication satellites in support of US ground and air forces during Operation Desert Storm. Now he’s using his technical expertise to help businesses run better and save money.

The new Ohio Lottery Web site will launch on February 14, 2011, so the Donet staff will be celebrating more than Valentine’s Day.

“The Ohio Lottery needed a ‘sure thing’ -- hosting with a 99.999% uptime guarantee,” says Mezera. “When it comes to the solution we provided, we feel like we are all winners.”

ABOUT DONETFounded in 1995, Donet is a Dayton-based IT services company. In it’s early days,Donet’s primary service was providing dial-up Internet service to the Dayton, Ohiocommunity. The firm’s two partners bootstrapped the company with $25,000 in privatecapital and built a company that is recognized as a leader in Internet technology and ITservices. Donet has attracted national clients while maintaining significant local marketpenetration.

Today Donet provides data center management, cloud computing, VMware, virtualmachines, disaster recovery, co-location as well as high-speed Internet access. They’realso a Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC) which enables them to provide fiberlikespeeds over copper wire into Dayton-area business at very affordable rates.

For more information, visit: http://donet.com

ABOUT DAVID MEZERADavid Mezera is the founder and president of Donet, a Dayton-based IT servicescompany founded in 1995. Mezera’s background includes large-scale technologyimplementations at two Air Force bases and research to improve the realism andcapabilities of autonomous air combat simulators through the use of machine learningtechniques. He also commanded critical Defense Department communication satellitesin support of US ground and air forces, providing 80 percent of the communications forOperation Desert Storm.

Mezera has a Master of Science in Computer Engineering from the U.S. Air ForceInstitute of Technology, focusing on artificial intelligence. He also has a B.S. in ElectricalEngineering from The Ohio State University.